Researchers find Big Tech's most ambitious builds and climate pledges are colliding with its AI power demands.

Data Center tax bill targets AI power demand, seeking to prevent consumers from bearing rising electricity costs.

"These speculators are nevertheless scaring our communities — being aggressive with township officials," Gov. Josh Shapiro said of developers.

From the governor’s race to county commission elections, candidates statewide have taken strong positions — and in some cases are campaigning — on data centers.

Data center developers are turning to bespoke natural-gas power plants, a development that promises to dramatically increase carbon emissions and make it harder for US technology companies to meet their lofty climate goals.

At the crux of the data center debate is artificial intelligence, which requires facilities that need massive amounts of energy.

A debate is unfolding over whether the booming data center industry belongs in one of the country's most water-stressed regions.

Early data centers ran databases, email, and web hosting, using a modest amount of power that varied throughout the day, Nikolopoulos said. Today’s data centers use considerably more electricity because of the larger amount of information they process, he said.